Analyzing railroad terminal performance in the timber industry supply chain – a simulation study

Abstract

Advanced logistics and transportation concepts are required to improve the timber industry supply chain. In this paper, terminal operation concepts are analyzed to show a strengthening of railway timber transport. As a first step, a detailed process analysis of roundwood (i.e. sawlogs and pulpwood) transport and its handling in dedicated wood terminals is made. Through a mass flow analysis the structure of timber transportation, in terms of both the transport mode and the actual spatial distribution of the wood transports, are evaluated. A generic discrete-event simulation model is developed in order to analyze various prevalent terminal layout configurations and to disclose potential improvements within the timber railway transportation system. This is done by proposing new terminal layouts and new railway transport options. We conduct comprehensive simulation experiments of the wood supply network with several terminals and industry sites to reveal the system’s bottlenecks and appropriate railway operation schedules. As a result, for the analyzed system, changing the railway operation from a single wagon load to a shuttle system almost doubles the capacity for round wood transportation. If it is feasible to change the terminal layout (i.e. loading track length), railway transport volumes can be further increased.